Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Tell the Publisher!
I'd like to read this book on Kindle

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Invisible Cities (A Harvest/Hbj Book) [Paperback]

Italo Calvino
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Hardcover --  
Paperback --  
Paperback, 1978 --  

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought


Product Details


Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars An Entire Universe per Page Jan 28 2012
Format:Paperback
I think that anything that's written about this book will pale in comparison to the wonders it contains. This is my best shot at capturing a movie with black and white still photography.

Every page or two contains an incredibly unique description of a city that itself stands as a symbol for some other deeper meaning. I got the impression that each of these cities could have spawned an entire 300-page novel but you get all of their wonder and meaning condensed into a page or two of beautifully written prose poetry. It's like walking through an art gallery where every painting is not only distinct from every other one, but also different that anything you've ever imagined yourself. For the first half of the book I kept worrying that it couldn't possibly continue to be this good'it did! Then for the second half of the book I kept worrying about the fact that I was quickly running out of pages in what was one of the most special books I've ever read. The cities aren't just interesting for their bizarre and astounding architecture, but also the customs and beliefs of the people that live there and ultimately the meaning that you can find in each of them.

This is all tied together by intermittent conversations between Kahn and Polo and their musings on the nature of reality and meaning.

I don't think that any book will change anyone's life. But the best books give you a new perspective on the world, or a germ of an idea or a glimpse at a feeling'a shred of deeper meaning that you can then take with you and make something out of if you so choose. This is one of those books.

Give it a shot. All it will take is a couple of pages to hook you.
Was this review helpful to you?
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This short book is both a parable about power and a wonderful compendium of magical places as enchanting as the late medieval traveler's tales that Calvino has clearly absorbed. The aged dictator Khan sits at the edge of a vast empire that he has never actually toured. The nimble Marco Polo, by contrast, possesses no territory; only the memory of his many travels.

Like Sheherazade recounting her thousand-and-one tales, Polo finds himself in the position of having to recollect for Khan the descriptions of the many cities that he ostensibly possesses. Polo thus becomes the Khan's only source for information about the cities in his territory; hence their 'invisibility.' But the descriptions he gives of the cities seem increasingly fantastic and elaborate. The Khan is skeptical. Polo, for his part, insists that he is being frank.

The question at the center of the book becomes: who possesses these cities? Kublai Khan, or Marco Polo? What are we to make of the possibility that Polo, for all his protestations, is being less than honest with the Khan? In which case, do the cities exist only in the traveler's imagination? If so, is the Khan's empire therefore merely a dream and an invention?

The brevity of each section (1 to 3 pages) and the sensual pleasures Calvino's descriptions provoke makes this book exquisite bed-time reading. In fact, older children would probably also enjoy the beauty of this charming tale.

Was this review helpful to you?
4.0 out of 5 stars Cities of the mind Aug 26 2011
By E. A Solinas HALL OF FAME TOP 10 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
"Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe everything Marco Polo says when he describes the cities visited on his expeditions, but the emperor of the Tartars does continue listening..."

So writes Italo Calvino, in one of the more ethereal experimental books he wrote. While not as weird as a book made up of tarot card adventures, "Invisible Cities" is a story that defies easy classification -- it's soft, dreamlike narrative in which one man tells another about the magical cities he's seen. Or, possibly, has not seen.

The famous Venetian explorer Marco Polo arrives in the empire of Kublai Khan, and the two men become friends. In the evenings, Marco tells the Khan of many fabulous cities -- the grey metal and stone Fedora, the stilted Zenobia, the haunted moonlit Zobeide, the sensual and bejeweled Anastasia, the cloud-straddling Baucis, the watery Esmeralda, a city of dead people known as Adelma, the dirt-choked Argia, the hazy rose-tinted Irene, and many others.

"Invisible Cities" isn't really a story so much as a series of beautiful pictures-in-prose. It's like we're watching Calvino paint us portraits of his fantasy cities with his words -- and except for Kublai Khan and Marco Polo occasionally conversing about trade, travel or chess, there is no actual plot here. It's just gorgeous portraits of imaginary cities.

And therein lies its charm. Calvino came up with dozens of fantastical cities in here. Few if any of them could actually exist, but they are so suffused with sensual beauty ("its villas all of glass like aquariums where the shadows of dancing girls with silvery scales swim...") and darkness ("All corpses, dried in such a way that the skeleton remains sheathed in yellow skin, are carried down there, to continue their former activities...") that you don't care.

Instead, Calvino comes up with strange, weird and illogical ideas, such as a city with ho actual buildings, but lots of plumbing. There are cities of the dead and the unborn; cities of the sea, the air, the earth and the sunrise; cities where everyone is a stranger and steampunk cities rusted into oblivion. It's like he's opened a hundred doors to eerie other worlds, and let us take a single picture of each before the doors close.

"Invisible Cities" is not a book for people who like plot -- instead, it's a chance to immerse yourself in Italo Calvino's magical language and imagination.
Was this review helpful to you?
Want to see more reviews on this item?
Most recent customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars a must own! ...
i read excerpts from this book a couple years before i got into architecture school, it was one of the things that helped give me that final push into choosing architecture as my... Read more
Published on April 22 2002
2.0 out of 5 stars BORING AND REPETITIVE
i had to read this for school, i hated it. its boring and repetitive. you can read the first 2 or 3 chapters and thats all you need, because it doesnt change. Read more
Published on Mar 4 2002 by Jon
5.0 out of 5 stars Subtle and Surreal
This book, if any, merits more than a single, swift reading. It is a rare gem which should be savored gradually. Read more
Published on July 13 2001 by "the_kenosha_kid"
4.0 out of 5 stars the adventures of marco polo...
if they were told by scherazade....the story is trippy...history mixed in with some sci-fi...nice thing about the book is you don't have to be a sci-fi or history buff to really... Read more
Published on May 24 2001 by Erren Geraud Kelly
5.0 out of 5 stars The Endless Possibilities of Human Creativity
This is one of my two or three all-time favorite books. Why? Because Calvino manages to capture and express the endless possibilities for human creativity. Read more
Published on May 11 2001 by Bruce Schachne
5.0 out of 5 stars Polo vs Kublai in the world's series of cities.
Marco Polo arrived in Katai (now China) by traveling as long as 3 years and a half. He would be staying at the Kublai Khan's court for 17 years as ambassador and governor. Read more
Published on Mar 2 2001 by Roberto Dondi
5.0 out of 5 stars Invisible cities - visible genius
Calvino is well-known for stretching the form of the novel, and Invisible Cities is certainly innovative in this respect. Read more
Published on Feb 5 2001 by R. Griffiths
5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite
For many people Invisible Cities is their favorite Calvino novel. While it is not quite mine (I prefer If on a Winter's Night a Traveller and The Baron in the Trees) no one would... Read more
Published on Dec 21 2000 by pnotley@hotmail.com
5.0 out of 5 stars None of my friends are lukewarm about this book
This book is clearly not to everyone's taste: friends of mine have been either enchanted or completely baffled by it. It is poetry masquerading as prose. Read more
Published on Nov 25 2000 by Neal J. King
4.0 out of 5 stars Nervewrackinly Hypnotic
I took a college class recently which featured this book. I found the concept behind this book original, clever, and intelligent. Read more
Published on Oct 25 2000 by Chris Tringali
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Feedback